New Zealand schools are compelled to “consult with iwi”. This involves “undertaking and respecting iwi’s perspectives on education, cultural values and aspirations for their children. Consultation should be ongoing and genuine, with schools ACTIVELY seeking input from iwi on curriculum, school activities and any initiatives that impact [part] Maori students”. (The term “part-Maori” is used since “Maori” are extinct, having bred themselves out of existence by preferring to breed with Europeans).
The above requirement is racist, laughable and very damaging to the education of New Zealand school students. It is racist because it singles out one of New Zealand’s several minority race groups, part-Maoris, but no others. It is laughable to ask for “iwi’s perspectives on education” and to ACTIVELY seek “input from iwi on curriculum” because the part-Maoris on these iwi committees, who are being asked for this input, are the very worst group of New Zealanders to give such advice since part-Maoris are at the very bottom of every educational statistic, topping the statistics for truancy but being consistently at the bottom of educational achievement.
Instead of dealing with the very real problem of truancy and poor literacy among part-Maoris, these iwi consultative groups are in the business of a cultural crusade against Western values, Western education and even nomenclature. They are like cultural doorkeepers, forcing changes to any notice or sign in the school that is in English only, weeding out any books from the school library that mention cannibalism or any of the other ugly traditional Maori practices, and even using their clout to change the name of any school that offend the prejudices of the tribal elite. Their contribution to the sound education of the general body of students in precisely zero, which is why a tried and tested discipline like Latin has been expunged while the new, largely made-up, Esperanto type “te reo” is given an almost godly status even though in the 21st century it is all but useless. Learning French or Mandarin would be far more use to students – both “part-Maori” and non-Maori.
A recent outrage of these cultural warriors has been to change the name of James Cook High School in Manurewa, Auckland. The school was founded in 1968 on the eve of the Bicentenary of Captain Cook’s great First Voyage of discovery in the Endeavour. It was on this voyage that he mapped New Zealand and made it known to the world. This was the first step in bringing the Stone Age tribes of New Zealand into the safety, freedom, peace, comfort and prosperity of the modern world and away from their centuries of self-destructive tribal wars and cannibalism.
For 57 years this school has built up a name for itself and a culture that has been a source of pride to its students. Its motto is “Endeavour” – a nod to Cook and a suitable word to encourage the students. However, it has recently got up the nose of the local iwi who have forced their will on to the school and compelled it to change its name to the unpronounceable and meaningless “Te Haikura a Kiwa”. No, I am not making this up. You have Auckland Grammar, Kings, Rangitoto College – and now something with four words that nobody understands either now or in the future.
The principal, Tina Filipe, is either too gutless to stand up against this act of cultural vandalism, destroying 57 years of a built-up tradition, or – even worse – she is a collaborator in this act of cultural destruction. In either event it would appear that she is quite unfit to be running a secondary school.
On her watch this school has a low Equity Index of 532, “placing it amongst schools whose students have the most socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to deciles 1 and 2 under the previous system)”. In other words, its educational achievement is one of the lowest in the country.
One would have thought that the principal of such a school would devote all of her time and effort into lifting the educational standards of this failing school instead of playing race politics and denigrating our wonderful Western heritage by going to all the trouble of changing the name of a school after it has been going for more than half a century under the name of James Cook High School. Of course, by going down the name-changing path, Tina Filipe will be diverting attention towards an extraneous matter and away from the appalling educational standards of the school that she is meant to be running. That may well be the whole point of the exercise. What sort of parents would condemn their children to be educated at such a school?